High Notes, Vol 17 No 30, September 23 2016

High TalentCongratulations to our ‘Philosothon’ boys for their
recent strong showing at the St Andrews School competition. Jonah Beer (9F), Alexander De Araujo
(10R) and Nicholas Giannoulis (11R) were placed second in the teams’ event and Alexander
was ranked first in Year 10. For a school without a formal philosophy elective as part of the
curriculum our boys acquitted themselves very well indeed.

End of Term 3Thank you to everyone in the High community for all their
efforts this term. Our boys have had many opportunities to learn, perform, compete, compose,
reflect, demonstrate and share. We welcome our new permanent staff member Dat Huynh (SHS-2004)
who has been appointed to the Industrial Arts staff. Dat has been a temporary teacher with us for
some time and is also doing a great job as MIC Fencing. This week we say goodbye to Mark Pavone,
Head Teacher of Sport who leaves us after seven years in the role. Mark has left a significant
legacy in the form of the Sports Policy implemented in 2013, expanding the number of
sports offered by the school, increasing the organised training sessions and providing a coach
for nearly every team. His Strategic Plans for Sport were well conceived and practicable. Much
progress has been made thanks to his leadership. We wish Mark all the best in his new role in
Queensland.

The Class of 2016: Principal’s Farewell MessageIt has been a great
six years for the Class of 2016, full of activities and achievements. You came in 2011 to a
school where the grounds had just been given a much needed facelift. Around the gym encapsulation
work provided concrete dish drains, bitumen roadways and a grassed bank. The COLA was fenced and
the run-ups extended and a sandstone retaining wall added. The Junior Quad had a big area of new
bitumen. The Senior Library was fitted out for research, allowing you as Year 7 students more
access in the Junior Library. Most rooms had data projectors, computers and sound systems. You
were the last cohort to be issued with the DER laptops. The environment for learning was in place
and you made the most of it.

There were many notable achievements by Year 12 students. Thomas Shortridge represented
Australian Schools in debating. Edward Belokopytov represented Australian Schools in table tennis
and led our team to a CHS title. Kabir Agrawal took 7 for 6 against Sydney Grammar in cricket.
Jason Hong was ranked in the top 5 in golf in NSW schools. Luke and Jayden Schofield qualified
for nationals in cross-country. Garry Huang won gold in the NSW Schools sabre competition. Kalem
Best, Christian Haddo, Luke Schofield and Andrew McNaughton set an all-time record for High in
the 4 x 50m open swimming relay. Garry Huang, Arthur Chao and James Ye were members of gold medal
fencing teams at the Australian Schools Championships. Other team successes involving Year 12
boys this year included: the CHS Championship in open volleyball, GPS Premierships in Rifle
Shooting (first and second grade), volleyball champions in first grade and premiers in second
grade, and cross country (open).

As you all leave High, I want you to remember also one of its most valuable cultural attributes
– its ability to connect you with mentors. Substantial people in our society have often had
significant exposure to the influence of mentors. Our Old Boys Union has a program aimed at
providing mentors and career coaches for its members. In his impressive biography,
Keating (Allen & Unwin, 2015), Kerry O’Brien asked Keating about his
relationship with Jack Lang (Labor stalwart and former Premier of NSW). Keating visited Lang
twice a week in his Sydney office for seven years (1962-69) until he was elected the Member for
Blaxland. During their long friendship, Keating learned from the old man how the game of
politics was played. Lang urged him to believe in the force of self-interest in politics. He
cautioned him to seek the support of earnest people. He stressed that it was the issues that
sorted people out in the long run.

Lang was Old School Labor but his great insight into politics helped Keating form one of his own
‘long lines of logic’ concerning the policy direction he would push for the
Australian economy. He came to the view that the ‘socialisation objective’ (the
government managing the high points of the economy) was old thinking. The future was in using
capital and employing people. Keating sought to enlarge Australia by bringing its driving forces
together – labour and capital. He believed in markets, not business.

Between the ages of 18 and 25 people can derive great knowledge and vicarious experience by
engaging with a mentor. The life lesson is to learn from people with great insight and experience
in your chosen field. Just as Keating made use of his connections to develop his political
philosophy, so would you derive benefits from connections with Old Boys or other mentors in your
chosen fields of endeavour.

I trust you will really enjoy the next phase of your education and hope that your teachers and
peers have prepared you well to undertake it.

Year 12 Farewell Assembly: Principal’s Address
"Good afternoon Year 12, parents, students and staff. Welcome to our Farewell Assembly
for the Class of 2016. It is with great pleasure that the High staff and I can host your visit to
the school today to participate in our annual celebration but unique experience for you - your
sons’ graduation from high school. The Class of 2016 expressed its character in its own
unique way. It has been a cohort that should be proud of its undoubted achievements in a range of
co-curricular activities. I have listed the most significant of these in my
‘Principal’s Message’ contained in your program.

"Whenever you talk about your time at High, you will always be able to say that in your final
year the school earned five GPS Premierships. Missing in your program is the undefeated run by
our first grade GPS debaters as Champions, retaining the Routledge Louat Shield for the first
time since 1938-39. Also unique to your Year is the fact that the Bennie twins (1996) and the
Schofield twins (2016) were important members of High’s only two GPS cross country
premierships. High also retained the Kippax Cup as the champion CHS Boys School in athletics for
the 4th consecutive year.

"We have as one of our marketing slogans – nurturing scholar-sportsmen since 1883. The
implied strength of our sporting culture is in its belief in mutual support and group
perseverance in adversity. Our students participate because they want to. They know it is good
for their personal balance in life and helpful to their team mates and important for the strength
of the reputation of the school. Whether in sports, community service, music, chess, social
justice, debating or public speaking, participation is our key cultural message.

"I customarily take this opportunity to thank the senior leadership group for their support:
William, Vishal and Eli were very committed to their roles. They had complementary skill sets and
were able to tap into a broad cross-section of students’ interests. I think they made an
effective team. Thank you for being our student leaders. I want to acknowledge all the Year 12
parents who are coming to the school for an event for the last time. Thank you for any help you
have given to our programs over the years. We value your contributions highly.

"We constantly need to reaffirm our culture of the scholar-sportsman. We really appreciate those
who care enough to plan their busy lives around academics and sport. Such a disposition to find
successful balance is the hallmark of the High boy. We need more boys prepared to compete in two
sports in their final two years at High. I want to thank the eight boys who competed in three
sports each year they were at school. Fifty-nine boys participated in two GPS sports each year
and sixty-one played one sport each year of school. I want to thank the 92 Year 12 boys who
showed such great pride in their school and represented High in at least two sports in their
final year at school. Another 57 played one sport. More than 71% of the cohort showed their
commitment to our ethos right to the end. That is a statistic to be proud of in a free-choice
environment.

"There were 19 boys from Year 12 who competed in GPS first or second grade in two seasons of
sport this year. Congratulations to those highly committed boys who represented the school at the
highest levels in multiple sports in 2016. Our ‘Triple Firsts’ this year were: Luke
and Jayden Schofield, Elias Hall, Christian Haddo, Jacob Katafano, Ethan Merrick and Andrew
McNaughton. Our ‘Double Firsts’ were: Kalem Best, Marcus Plataniotis, Adam
Smagarinsky and Daniel Zhang. We had a large ‘One-Two- Club’: William T Chen, Jerry
Gek, Finley Hayhurst, Raphin Hossain, Liam Jepson, James Merlo, Nafis Rahman and Karthik
Subbanna. Our ‘Double-Two’ boys were Desmond Cai and Kentaro Takahata.

"In my Principal’s message I recounted Paul Keating’s relationship with his political
mentor, Jack Lang, who had the propensity to go to the barricades for causes. Nicknamed
‘The Big Fella’, he was elected NSW Premier in 1930 on a platform of opposition to
tax cuts. With 20% unemployment that year he refused to cut government salaries and spending and
restricted landlord’s rights to evict defaulting tenants. He paid workers the minimum legal
wage on government relief projects. His refusal to repay the Commonwealth for interest owed to
British banks and his subsequent withdrawal of government cash from NSW banks, were political
acts too challenging for Governor Sir Phillip Game who dismissed him in 1932.

"Lang may be characterised as an extreme ideologue but nonetheless, Australia needs more
’issues men’ like him to show us that public service through politics can be more
than a game of survival driven by a 24-hour news cycle. It can and should be about earnest
people, standing up for issues and arguing their points of view with ‘long lines of
logic’ aimed at the enlargement of Australian society.

"I trust that your time at High has built your personal capacity to think long term and act
earnestly in pursuit of your goals. Seek out mentors in the profession you wish to enter and find
out more about it before you decide to commit to it. I wish you all the best in your HSC
preparations and in the examinations to come and expect that you will be successful in gaining
entry to your chosen tertiary options. It was my great privilege to serve as your
Principal."Dr K A Jaggar
Principal